The Polish government responded strongly Friday to the European Commission’s concern about moves to exert greater control over public media, insisting Warsaw recognizes “the freedom and pluralism of the media” and warning that if Brussels pushed the issue too far there could be “an undesirable effect.”
In December, the Commission’s First Vice President Frans Timmermans sent Warsaw two letters asking for clarification after Poland’s new ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) moved to put Polish public TV and radio broadcasters under direct government control and to reform the Constitutional Tribunal in a way critics say threatens the country’s judicial independence.
Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksander Stępkowski responded in a letter to Timmermans that the media law signed by President Andrzej Duda on Thursday does not endanger press freedom. “Freedom of information and freedom of speech are fully respected and obeyed by the Polish government,” he wrote.
Stępkowski suggested that Timmermans’ concerns about the situation in Poland might have been influenced by “unfair, biased and politically motivated” accounts.
Poland’s 1992 broadcasting act, Stępkowski wrote, “stays untouched” by the amending statute. “There is no EU law that would require a media market regulatory body to have the power to determine the composition of management boards of public media companies.”
The government announced a complete overhaul of top management of Polish state television and radio on Friday. One of the big winners is Jacek Kurski, a former Law and Justice politician with a long history of losing libel cases and a colorful way with language, who becomes the new chief of Polish state television.
“This good change guarantees a return to balance in the media,” said Treasury Minister Dawid Jackiewicz, who gained the power to hire and fire media managers under the new law.
The European Commission will discuss a possible EU response to the new Polish legislation at its meeting next Wednesday. The European Parliament is set to discuss Poland during its plenary in Strasbourg later this month.
However, there is little chance of the Commission imposing any measures against Poland, as Hungary, also run by a nationalist-populist government, said it would veto any steps against its ally.
“The European Union should not think about introducing any sanctions against Poland, because that would require full unanimity and Hungary never will support any sanctions against Poland,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told Hungarian public radio.
Orbán met earlier this week with Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of Law and Justice and widely considered to be Poland’s most powerful politician.